Specter the mercenary
by Tremble Wolf
Summary: Here are some stories from the mechwarrior four mercs, and ones they didn't show. It is rated for violence, but not harsh language. I am proud to say I do not include foul language or anything like it. The story line is now changed, I hope you enjoy. R
1. Prologue

Mercenary (prologue)

Disclaimer: I don't own mechwarrior, or any of the characters, except the name I gave to specter that is.

Please review, this is a comedy and action/adventure story based off Mechwarrior 4 mercenaries. (If you have any input on what side he should choose, let me know and I might consider what you offer, also what missions he should do, and the outcome of them.)

Specter sipped from his mug of hot coffee and then looked at the package he a just gotten, he had sent in his resume,(as in a job application) to the Northwind Highlanders two weeks ago, specter was now 27 and had been training to be a mechpilot for years. And recently there have been pilot sponsorship programs for mercenary companies allowing his dream to come true. Specter opened the package hoping he had been accepted, he sighed with relief, he was accepted, and was to go to planet outreach in a week.

"Just enough time to prepare." Specter thought, "Man this is going to be glorious!"

Specter jumped up, and for the next week he spent his time getting ready for what he was getting him self into. He took the soonest ship he could to get there took an already easy training time. After all, he was using a bushwacker, an easy mech as he thought, in the simulators he had used to familiarize himself with all the mech's he might get, assault, and light mech's alike. He was to command a single lance and was given a few mech's, his sponsers recommended that he go to Eaton first because there were a few easy missions of capturing convoys. Specter's real name was John K. Anderson. But he decided that it would be much safer to have people refer to him as "specter".


	2. Chapter 1

Specter chapter 1 

Disclaimer: I don't own. Anyway, I finally beat the game on the Steiner side, joining the wolf clan. It was hard, sometimes.

(I messed up the first time, this is the real chapter.)

John had passed all the tests and was on a drop ship flying to Eaton, his lance had three other members besides himself; Beowulf, Hannibal, and Bullseye. Specter knew that these guys weren't cheap, but from their stats, they were worth the money. John came into the bay where their two fleas, and two Osireses, and an two Chimeras and to top it off, two Ravens, were sitting in their spots. Hannibal was checking the one of the Chimeras and Bullseye and Beowulf were arguing over what 'mech they were going to use. John ran over to clear things up.

"Hey! Calm down, don't worry; I won't have my lance running around in fleas. I'm going to sell these and buy you better 'mechs." John informed them with a frustrated sigh.

"Oh,' Said Beowulf in his deep and highly accented voice, 'I guess that settles it, I'll give you advice on what to get."

"Hmm…' Interjected Bullseye, 'Well, I'll let you deal with that, I'm going over to play speed with Hannibal."

It took about two weeks to arrive at Eaton, and when they did, John went over to his computer to see what missions were available. He decided to choose a mission of convoy capture, seeing that there would be some nice salvage. John then went to the roster and sold his two fleas and an Osires and one of the Ravens, and bought a wolfhound and a Hellspawn, he still had about two million C-bills to pay for landing. John brought the ship down and booted out the fleas, and other 'mechs with glee, while welcoming in his new 'mechs.

"Well, I can guess which one he's taking…' Bullseye murmured to Beowulf while playing chess, 'Ten to one, he's giving us the two Chimeras."

John walked over and pulled a chair over to the table.

"I've decided to give you Beowulf the Hellspwn and you Bullseye, you get a chimera, use them well in the next mission and you may get better weaponry, I'll transfer your weekly salary to your accounts when the time comes, so down worry about being short on cash. I giving Hannibal the other Chimera."

Bullseye punched Beowulf lightly in the shoulder as he threw away his opponent's queen, "I told you so." He teased.

"So? I would've done the same.' Beowulf answered nonchalantly while punching Bullseye knocking him to the floor, 'Besides I got the Hellspawn." At that moment, they felt the ship descend.

"Come on!' John called, 'into your 'mechs!" John ran and got in and put on his neuro helmet. They all strapped in and powered up as the ship landed.

"All right,' Castle said calmly in the comms. 'They are about two kilometers away, follow your navs and just kill the guards and don't damage any of the convoy vehicles."

"Copy that Castle, keep us informed of the enemies' movements, open the doors!" Specter called in the comms. They all marched out and got in formation, John ordered his lance to pull around and selected a target vehicle for each of them, they all fired their lasers, and missiles into their targets utterly decimating them.

"Specter?' Castle inquired, 'There are enemy aircraft coming in your direction, divert and focus your attack on them."

"Got that. All right, you heard the lady! Open fire, take out those helicopters." They all obeyed and locked their reticules onto the hulls of the Nightwinds. They took them all out with little damage and halted the progress of the convoy.

"Great job, sir.' Castle said cheerily, 'I see that you salvaged several good weapons, machine guns, AC 10's, small, and medium lasers. And I must say, the pay was pretty good; your current balance stands at 4,469,150 C-Bills, this was a good day."

"Yes indeed.' Answered John, "A great day, I'll see what opportunities arrive next week, I'm off to rest." John jubilantly ran off and gave Hannibal a high-five while passing by.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 

Disclaimer: I don't own this story, except for what happens… I am doing each chapter after I do a level in the game, so this is how I'm playing it this time.

Specter looked at the screen, and decided to accept the new mission; another convoy, capture description. The pay was better; a full 1,552,500 C-bills Specter finished and went down to his lance, after hiring two new members, code named Gator, and Scrapper. These two were still getting to know the other men in the simulators; Specter was actually sipping some coffee and blowing on it while he canceled the simulation.

"All right team,' He announced, 'I've just accepted another mission, so we can just get our equip ready, we're leaving tomorrow."

"Well then, down to the desert again?" Hannibal inquired.

"Yes indeed,' Specter replied, 'but, their reinforcing their escort with mech's this time, and with the rumors, one demolisher II."

"Now that is what I call a tank!" Gator cheered "I love taking those on."

"Well, what mechs are being assigned to us?" Beowulf asked while standing in an at-ease position.

"Well, I'll use the Wolfhound, and you can use the hellspawn. Gator, I think you should know how to handle a Raven, I outfitted it with some medium lasers and Cstrike 6, and I've given it extra ammo and armor, and an IFF jammer. Beowulf, you get the Hellspawn like last time, Hannibal and Bullseye get the chimeras again. Scrapper, I've got an Osires, you'll use that." All right, let's eat and jump into the simulators, let's do this right!"

They all filed out respectfully and ate their lunch, Then they spend ages perfecting the concept of working with new members and following orders on the spot and to the letter. The next day, they got ready and jumped into their 'mechs and strapped in and did their checks. John strapped on his helmet and waited till the ship landed and the gantry lowered.

"Alright! Their vanguard assets have been reinforced, so let's go out there and shoot them down, just a warning, there is an airfield in a nearby canyon so watch the skies for incoming air-vehicles. Let's take them hard and fast, follow my lead, take the 'mechs out first, and then go for the vehicles. Let's Go!"

Specter listened as they affirmed their ready-op status and then pounded down and out onto the plane. He listened to the pounding of his five members and then stopped at the crest of a hill.

"I've spotted a demolisher, I'd advise taking that one down first, also the 'mechs are only numbered at two, you should have no problem, sir." Castle said with assurance

"Right,' Specter replied, 'will do! Beowulf, you and Gator come with me to kill the Demolisher, Hannibal; you lead the others to take out that Argus, once we are done with the demolisher than we'll join you."

Specter's wolfhound thudded across the sand as he took aim at the Demolisher II, he fired his large X-pulse laser into the front at the cockpit, but he missed the pilot and hit some of the machinery, but didn't do any serious damage. Beowulf fired a missile salvo into the turret, and was pleased when some went into the barrel and damaged the firing system. Then Gator finished it off with salvos of missiles and lasers that ripped it apart.

"Okay, now go for the Argus, he's almost gone!" Specter called joyiously.

"I'm on it,' Said Hannibal as he fired his large laser into the pilot killing him instantly. 'Yeeeehaaaa, I got him!"

"Nice one… Come on, I've almost hit the reactor on the Chimera." Specter said as he fired his X-pulse laser into the reactor which destroyed the 'mech.

"Castle, can we get some allied air cover to smoke out that airbase?"

"Yes sir, they'll be there in moments." Castle replied.

"Alright, watch the skies, if your cross-hairs go blue; DON"T SHOOT." Specter mused in his comm.

They all fired their lasers into the skies pulling the Nightwinds down with red and blue streaks. The picked off the tanks and rounded up the cars. Then Specter went back to the ship to review the spoils of their mission. They salvaged the Argus and the chimera, but Specter didn't really favor these and sold them within the week, and bought an Uziel and a Bushwakcer. Then he looked at the salvaged weapons, which he was pleased to review. 3 large lasers, 2 sets of LRM 5, 6 sets of LRM 10, and 4 sets of LRM 15, and 3 sets of LRM 20. And the two sets of Clan ultra AC 10. Unfortunately his wolfhound was crippled.

"Sir.' Castle interrupted, 'I'm pleased to announce that your new balance is: 3,590,425 C-Bills."

Specter leaned back in his chair and sipped from his mug of black coffee. Beowulf strode over and set a black briefcase in front of him and opened it.

"You want to play me at Backgammon?' Beowulf asked with a grin, 'All the others don't want to lose anymore." He added.

"Certainly I'd love to." Specter exclaimed, he loved this game, versions of this game, trace thousands of years to board games that are similar to it from the ancient civilization of Sumer. He guessed that he could take on this guy and chose to be the white, and rolled one of his die. He got the first roll, and 6, 1. The rest of the game went well, and he had gotten most of his men off, but he left one of his pieces open and ended up losing.

"Man Beowulf,' John exclaimed, 'you are totally amazing, you mix good rolls with amazing and aggressive tactics!"

"And I must admit, that was the closest game I've ever played… I'll play you again some time and teach you some of the best moves in certain positions."

Specter left for his room after transferring the weekly salary to his lance mates.

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RougeBaron:I think I might change it from humor to just action/adventure. I'm still just starting this story, and have just started another profile on the game for my fanfics.

Well, it's late, I have to go, I've got church tomorrow and we're leading worship, so good night to all and God bless. Support the president, the war isn't done yet.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 

Disclaimer: I don't own the story, except for the budget because that is the real budget of this Mercenaries account. I do own the name of John and that's about what I own.

John woke up from a refreshing sleep, he had decided to go to Halleran V before going back to the desert again, he walked over to the computer that sat waiting for him and logged into his MRBC account.

"Well, they have an easy one right here…' Specter said nonchalantly, but really he was feeling lazy and didn't want a hard job right then, 'Clear the checkpoints? Doesn't seem too difficult."

Hannibal walked up to him with a tray of scrambled eggs and pulled up a chair.

"So, going slow this week?" He said through a mouthful of eggs.

"Um… Yes… You know Hannibal, it isn't exactly appreciated when people talk with their mouths full…' He said with an annoyed expression, 'Do you mind eating over there, because it's kind of hard to concentrate, I'm re-doing the weapon layout of that Bushwacker I bought."

Hannibal left with a chuckle and left Specter toying with the light gauss he had salvage two weeks ago. He loaded the 'mech with a large laser and a light gauss rifle in the center torso and loaded some LRM 10 in the left arm. Specter finished and accepted the mission, then he went over to the table and had breakfast.

"We're going on a clean sweep today…' Specter started with satisfaction as they stopped what they were doing and listened, 'I'm using the bushwacker, Beowulf, you use the Hellspawn, Hannibal, you use the Uziel, Gator, you and scrapper will use the Chimeras, Bullseye, you should use the raven, it is a good fire support 'mech. Alright… Let's Go!" Specter belted out the last part and finished his meal, and then he ordered Castle to bring the ship down to the destination, and got into his Bushwacker.

The ship descended and dropped them off on the road.

"Alright, I want an operation ready report!" Specter ordered.

"Ready op!" was their response.

"Ok! Forward! Beowulf you and Gator come on the right side, we'll take the left. Let's go!" Specter called out in a commanding tone. Specter zoomed in and saw the headlights of a few bulldogs hiding in the fog, apparently they hadn't noticed their arrival. Specter fired a laser, but it didn't hit, then he blasted apart an LRM track as the line responded to the fire. An Owens came at them.

"You have violated a Halleran protectorate outpost, shut down your mechs." The pilot ordered.

"Heh, no thanks… Spunky little fella eh?" Specter laughed and fired his missiles into the Owens and then followed it up with his large laser and light gauss rifle. Hannibal finished him off with his PPC's. They fired at the random vehicles and tents. But Specter shot a big hole into the body of the turret control car, which disabled the auto-cannon turrets.

"Well, looks like they came up minus a pilot,' said Specter as they looked at the empty and undamaged Hellspawn, 'Let's leave it for salvage."

"Why sir, that's good news, the Chimera isn't that armored." Said Gator happily.

"Well, we don't know who's piloting what now do we?" Replied Specter teasingly.

"Do we have to keep these Chimeras?" Scrapper complained.

"They're medium 'mechs and that's good for now." Specter replied. "Look here, this is a shortcut to the next Nav point, let's go through this lake!" Specter said proudly.

They all followed as he went through and opened fire on the mobile APU and destroyed it with a few good salvos; the shockwave went through his 'mech and damaged him slightly. Then Peregrines came in from the skies and took their attention, they used their lasers and missiles to kill the all before mopping up the few bulldogs that had been there.

"Ok, to the last Nav, let's go, this has got to be the most defended." Specter said while wiping his forehead.

They marched over and met another Owens and defeated him by fired tons of ordinance into the torso and cockpit, which not only detonated the reactor, but also killed the pilot with the lasers and flames. Then when they were storming towards the last checkpoint, bulldogs and missile tracks met up with them, followed by a Puma. The Puma fired its PPC's into the center torso of Specter's Bushwacker, but was thanked by a guass slug smashing through the pilot's ferro-glass. The 'mech slumped to the ground in a few seconds, and then they destroyed another APU and then covered the salvage team.

John went to his room and opened his laptop, then he read the salvage review; a Hellspawn, and 3 medium pulse lasers, 2 LRM 5's, 2 SRM 6's, an ultra AC 5, and two mech class machine gun arrays. Specter went into his account and sold an Osiris. Not including the money from the sale, his balance equaled 5,296,389 C-bills.

Specter spent the rest of that night in the simulator honing his sniping tactics with a gauss rifle. Then he went and ate dinner, pot roast, one good things of having that much money, was good meals.

"Man,' said John in a satisfactory voice, 'that was delicious. Pot-roast was always a favorite of mine… when done right." John bid everyone good night and went off to his quarters.

Okay, was that a good chapter? Well I won't reply to nonexistent reviews so please review, it'd be much appreciated anyway, I'm off to update Snake clan again, I think that one is better but I'll see if you think the same now… Have a good week! –Tremble wolf


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 4:

**Disclaimer: I do not own mechwarrior.**

_Note: This story is going to change a little, I think I'm going to have Specter fight a full campaign on Halleran V. So this is now being changed from what I had in mind at first._

_Thank you Kat Wylder for the suggestion, I'll try and make this worth your time._

* * *

**Chapter 4:**

Specter's troubled sleep

John rubbed the sleep from his eyes, after his last look at the computer, he found another million and a half C-Bills. He tripped down a few flights of stairs and found himself in the kitchen, whatever was cooking, did not smell appetizing.

"What's that stench!" He thought. "I'm out of here."

The cook looked down at him and saw him wrinkling his nose in disgust.

"I am making porridge, with a few added… um… things…" The cook mumbled as he went back to his pot.

Specter was awake by then and ran down the hall into the lounge and threw himself into a chair and sighed loudly. Gator and Bullseye sat at a little table with bloodshot eyes, in-between them was a chessboard.

"How long have you been playing this!" He practically screamed, he needed his pilots at top capacity.

The two men turned towards a clock that sat on the wall and mumbled something about; "Since 3…" The rest of their speech was unintelligible, and Specter ran over and threw the table away and dragged each one to his room.

"Of all the incompetence! Two less pilots! Get rested!" He muttered things like that all the way. Then when he was finally disposed of them, he ran over to his computer hoping for good news.

Specter was outraged; the only mission he could get at that point was a million C-bill defense for a farm. Apparently the local militia is after more than the docks and oil.

But he knew they needed money, and that small farm was their best bet.

John K. Anderson paced through several more halls and into the dimly light mechbay where his Bushwacker sat waiting. Several mechanics were busy with the myomer in the left shoulder, but the rest of the mech was ready to go.

"Hurry it up there! I have to leave in two hours!" Specter called up at the techs. Then he went over to the nearby elevator and was raised to the dorm level. And after working his way to his room, he belted a small pistol on his hip; one never knows when it may be necessary. And after seating himself in one of the many chairs, he relaxed.

Then Hannibal came into the room wearing his coolant suit and had a blanket tied around his neck like a cape. And he a cooking pot on his head, he was holding a coiled rope in one hand, and a mathematical compass in the other.

"What on Terra is going on here!" Specter gasped.

"I'm prepared." He simply stated.

"Why? What's going to happen?" John questioned.

"I'm not sure yet, but whatever happens, I'm going to be ready for it." Hannibal replied curtly.

Specter leapt from his chair, though in reality he was wishing he had an outfit like that, he really had to be ready for anything.

Beowulf then rushed in with a tray with burned contents, and contently started to crunch in loudly in his mouth. But then, when everything was getting worse, Specter opened his eyes and found himself in the chair and Bullseye and Gator were sitting there all cheerful with bright eyes, playing chess.

John stood up and combed his hair with his fingers. And then checked his computer, he actually still had two hours. And when he checked on the mechs, they were all in prime condition.

He then dressed up in his coolant suit and walked over to his men.

"Are you ready? Well, then get going, I want to be there early. Meet me in your mechs, Castle, drop us in nice and easy, we can then get ready and defend with a better view of the place." Specter dismissed them all with a wave of his hand and raced down to the mechlab.

He then got onto the elevator and was raised to the mech, and climbed nimbly in. The all too familiar computer generated voice listed off all the systems and stated that all were "nominal".

An Uziel and two Chimeras came forward and stood at attention. Then two Hellspawns pulled out of their berths. An audible rumbled filled the ship as it lowered and landed on the ground with a thud.

The doors opened slowly and Specter led them out. He stopped out side and turned to face the ship.

"Castle, can you hear me?" He inquired as he blinked in the sun.

"I can hear you find Specter." She replied.

"Good, then notify the station of our approach." Specter ordered nonchalantly.

"Will do sir." She paused and then came back on. "It seems they appreciate our arriving early, because it seems that the militia have also decided to come, be careful, they have a one heavy surrounded by lights." Her worried voice did not phase the determined lance as they turned towards nav. Alpha.

As the reached the crest of a green hill, a low and wide plain opened up beneath them, and they could see the smoke rising from one silo. Also they noticed three mechs and a lance of medium vehicles.

"Beowulf, you take Shredder and go wipe out those quad panzers. Hannibal, you Gator and Bullseye are going to help me take down that… Mad cat… O.K. Let's get going, fire missiles now!" Specter ordered while he scanned more closely with his zoom.

Both the Chimeras and the Uziel launched a wave of missiles that locked onto the heavy and rocked it back, while ripping one of the missile racks to bits.

Specter fired his large laser and light gauss into the torso and tore a gaping whole underneath the arm, fire spewed out and more missiles slammed into the arm and chewed it off the mech. Bullseye targeted a hole that was left and fired his missiles and equipped PPC into the hole. A huge ball of fire erupted from the Mad Cat, red-hot shrapnel scraped across Specter's ferrp-glass shield.

Two Osirises and an owens were left, Beowulf and shredder came back and decided to kill the owens.

Specter took four lasers across the chest, and an alarm rang in his ears, the heat was increasing, and sweating under his suit, he fired an alpha strike that tore open the torso of one of the Osireses and left a small carcass of metal behind.

His other companions were circling the last mech, and firing at it sequentially, one leg flew off the chassis and knocked Beowulf's Hellspawn over, the smoke receded and they looked at the horizon, and after checking their radars, Castle piped in.

"It seems that after you killed the Mad cat and the tanks, the rest of the militia fled. Good work, you can come back now."

"That's good news to be sure, get a salvage team in here and get what you can, I'll be expecting payment from them soon. I had a hunch they'd be here early." He replied cheerfully.

It took about half an hour to get back to the ship, and when he finally took off his coolant suit and was standing all sweaty on the ground; he congratulated the men for "earning money so others might live." He hand his dinner and went to his room, and checked his balance, It had increased, and he left the room a happier man.

He went into the lounge and found his men, some were sitting and reading, and Bullseye and gator were at it again with the chess set. Castle sat in a chair, probably farthest from the rest and seemed properly annoyed, perhaps they had only just calmed down. She did seem a little wet.

And while he was pondering all this, he noticed everyone was wet, with the exception of the chess players. Specter decided he would check things out, and walked over to watch.

"Who's winning?" He catiously asked.

"Winning what? The chess game, or the contest?" They both stated with a grin.

And growing uneasy he questioned. "What contest?"

"Who can stay dry, or for how long, the record is ten minutes, but that was because Beowulf is too seriously intimidated. But here it is, you lose with two minutes!" Gator replied, and at the end, he pulled out a balloon filled with water and smashed it over his leader's head.

Specter lunged, and tackled him, in the same time knocking over the chess set. He then fished in to a bucket that was concealed earlier, and popped three over his head. And then threw one into Bullseye's face.

And then after standing up with a victorious smirk, he stated rather smoothly: "I win."

* * *


	6. Chapter 6

**_Let me know if I made any typos please, also if I made any mistakes, let me know so they can be corrected. I hope you enjoy this chapter, "Of Snow and Fire". That's what I'll nickname it, though it really is just "Chapter 5"._**

**_-Tremble Wolf  
_**

* * *

Specter the Mercenary

Chapter 5

…….

"_Location: Halleran V…… North Polar Ice Cap._

_Local time is 5:37 GST_

_Temperature is negative fifteen degrees Celsius._

……_. All systems nominal."_

Specter sighed as the computerized voice of his mech's computer filled his ears with the latest information as he powered it up. "Since when did the mech tell me the temperature or planet side location?" He asked himself, but he figured the mysterious tech he hired from on-planet motor club. He had claimed he could repair anything.

John shook himself from his thoughts and opened a channel to the rest of his lance, this was a one lance operation as it was covert.

"Alright team…" He started, "Come into formation, it appears we have waited long enough, we need to find this facility and capture it, our employers say that if we do a good enough job, then we can have the place." Specter said with an audible "brrr."

"I love being cold at night!" Said Shredder sarcastically; he obviously wasn't too excited about being there.

"I think it is a good idea, if we have this facility, then it would make a good staging base for all of our operations." Beowulf said with a chiding tone.

"Oh I see, I guess that it is a good idea to take this from Steiner's hands anyway, but this makes it a bonus." Shredder replied.

"Exactly…" Hannibal added, "It would make a better, more defensible base than our Talon drop ship. Besides, we can use their hanger to hold more mechs, and you like that don't you?"

"We're not that rich yet Hannibal but I sure want to get there." Specter said with more of a shiver.

"But let's get moving, our Intel says that they have only two guards, I think they still suppose that their base is invisible and secret." Specter stated.

"Yes Sir!" Shredder stated

"Ready op." Came Beowulf's famous low toned bass like voice.

"I'm ready." Hannibal added.

"Ok, let's go. We don't know what class or mechs they are using as a guard, but we need to be cautious, it could be a Daishi for all we know. But, I need you, Hannibal and Shredder to go to Nav. Alpha and destroy any turrets, but keep a lot intact; we want to use them ourselves." Specter sighed before continuing.

"Beowulf, we are going straight to nav Beta to confront the mech, Hannibal, if we call, come quickly. Move out!" Specter gave his orders and brought his throttle to full. The snow sending up clouds at each step of his white painted Bushwhacker.

Beowulf's Hellspawn came in behind him and made use his torso twisting abilities whilst looking for enemies.

Specter listened to the rhythmic rumbling of his mech while he neared the nav point. He stopped abruptly, there it was, the base. Beowulf's mech was still moving and rammed into Specter because he wasn't looking ahead.

"BEOWULF?" Specter blurted as his mech was sent face down into a small valley that was filled with the facility.

"Sorry sir, but I think you should see this…" Beowulf's voice was filled with impending doom. Specter soon agreed after looking at his scanners.

Two demolishers, one Atlas, and a full wing of Nightwinds, then he noticed with distaste the last enemy.

"Beowulf, a, I really seeing a Fafnir?" He said with fear creeping into his voice.

"Hannibal, come quickly, we are soon to be overwhelmed there are too many, assault vehicles and mechs. Their Intel was way off, this installation is huge, and there is an Overlord here!" Specter rambled quickly into his comm.

"Come again?" Shredder's voice chimed in.

"Do you still want to do this? Sir?" Hannibal secretly hoped he wouldn't acquiesce.

"The Overlord is beginning a launch, maybe, YES! They are loading it full with… Well, four Fafnirs are gone, one left with the tanks and helicopters." His triumph dropped to an all-time low as he saw multiple Fafnirs walk into the Overlord.

"When you said overwhelmed I though you meant hairy, but I didn't think you meant impossible." Shredder said uncomfortably as he and Hannibal came into their sensor range.

"No… We are going in… The salvage would let us retire. All we need to do is lure the assault vehicles and mechs into the center of the fuel tanks and destroy them, the helicopters are close enough that most would be destroyed!" Specter gave his orders with hope.

"Um… Who is this "lure" you're talking about." Asked Shredder from his Raven.

"Shredder, run by and fire all your missiles into the Fafnir, and your lasers into the Atlas while you run through the tanks."

"How do you know they won't fire on them and kill me?"

"Um… I don't, but if we move to the other side of them and fire missiles then they will want to go through to get us too." Specter said soothingly.

"Alright, but don't fail me."

"We won't!" The rest of the lance chorused while moving around the perimeter.

* * *

Shredder targeted the Atlas and activated his ECM, their tech said it would work better than normal, but shredder didn't trust techs. 

He snuck his mech down the slant and hid behind what looked like a factory, a huge factory. Then he proceeded down the street with unimaginable stealth until he knew it was time.

His raven went to full speed in seconds and fired several small red beams of energy into the huge Atlas and melted several plates of armor off its shoulder.

Then while running Shredder locked onto the Fafnir, he could tell it was getting ready for a strike with its heavy gauss rifles. He unleashed his missiles and connected a clan NARC system onto the enemy's chassis.

Shredder's face and neck were enveloped in sweat as he ran past and into the field of fuel canisters. The Atlas launched all its missiles at him, but they went around and followed the NARC, Shredder was glad he launched it.

The Fafnir shook as explosive warheads tore at his frame, and for good measure, fired one of his heavy gauss rifles at the Atlas, possibly thinking he had some grudge against him.

The two assault mech noticed, halfway through their fight, that the tanks were going into the field and were chasing the enemy, so they joined in.

* * *

"Specter!" Shredder announced as the two assault mechs entered the field. 

"Keep going, you're almost out!" Specter replied.

"I've taken two crack shots from the tanks, AC 10, agh it hurts." Shredder said while his limping mech came out.

"Fire on my mark only!" Specter said to his lance.

"Lock onto the Fafnir and Atlas, fire on them, any missing fire will blow them to bits!" Specter ordered wile his ER Large laser powered up, his right arm twitched as the Atlas came within range of his Clan Ultra AC 20.

"Fire!"

Missiles and lasers, and ballistic projectiles flew through the space between the two groups like fireworks as the AMS equipped Atlas fired at them.

Wrong move, he hit a fuel tank and doomed himself.

The whole field of Assault mech sized fuel tanks exploded, the assault mechs were stripped bare as they were engulfed, the searing heat wave reached Specter's lance and knocked them over.

"I think that is it…" Said Hannibal.

"Call Castle, tell the base will be ours once we clear it, see if we can get a strike team." Specter ordered.

"I've been here the whole time, but I our communication was being jammed, I think you dealt with it though." She said cheerfully.

"I'm sending a strike team and salvage team to your location, you can park in their hanger and rest if you like." She added as the ship landed on a raised drop-ship platform.

Specter parked his Bushwhacker in the hanger and shut it down, he felt the mech relax as it did and opened the cockpit.

He jumped nimbly out of the cockpit and landed on a catwalk. His lance soon met up with him still in their cooling vests.

"Find a weapon and be ready, if this installation is going to be ours, we need to join the fight." Specter said as he pulled a laser pistol from his hip.

* * *

The hanger doors from the catwalk slid open while Specter rolled in. He looked around, no damage to the halls; this must not have been cleared yet. 

John leaned around the corner to see one soldier wearing the uniform of Archon Katrina Steiner's side. He aimed around the corner and fired a laser burst into his head. The man slumped down and Specter went over to see if there were more.

"This area over here has seen some action." He thought as he saw bullet holes and carbon scoring in the halls.

Specter leaned over and picked up the man's automatic rifle. And not caring what model it was he cantered down the hall to see if he had allies.

Specter kept on running while he looked to his left, that is before he collided with Hannibal coming from the other way. They both fell to the ground in a very unceremonious manner and had bruises to tell about it.

Specter got up to a crouch before asking: "Hannibal, what is the status of the facility?"

"There has been little resistance, most of the base is ours, I suggest that we get some rest and let the salvage team get to work." He said with a huff.

"Good." He said before adding: "This base may have been of some importance to the Archon, I think we may need a few MODL's, or ship-class lasers in case they come back." Specter stated while looking up.

"It seems that way." Hannibal replied.

* * *

**_Sorry I haven't updated in a while, as I said, I work more on the Snake Clan._**

**_But, as I was trying to find something to read, but it seems every author was on coffee break and was reading too, so I updated._**

**_Thanks for all your support._**

**_-Tremble Wolf_**


	7. Chapter 7

Specter the Mercenary 

Chapter 6

Location: Halleran V

Local time: 23:34 GST

Conference Room aboard the Talon class drop ship; "Skippy".

* * *

Castle stood at the head of a long polished, oak table. She shook her head with an agitated and annoyed expression.

"No, the militia still wants to fight, even with a bloody nose." She replied to a question directed to her from the code-named pilot; Buzz.

"Any news on Merc-Net right now?" John inquired.

"Well…" She replied, before getting cut off by the noise of a loud "crash" reverberate through the ship, shortly followed by indignant cries and curses echoing through the halls. "It seems… That… After your dealings with the Cobras they may be out for some revenge, there are rumors of the local militia hiring them to fight us and protect them."

There was another loud crash, though this one much nearer, as the new tech officer collapsed through the double doors of the conference room.

"Sorry to intrupt but I thut thet yuuu mit whant to know thet…"

"Quit the drunk act and speak English!" Bullseye demanded.

"Sorry sir. I wanted you to know that there has been a problem; I accidentally made a mistake while working on your Bushwhacker… That crash was its torso falling to the ground." The tech officer smiled sheepishly hoping not to get mauled, but was given grace.

Specter bit his ear off, not literally, but his stream of unintelligible ramblings ended after ten minutes and left Castle slightly pale.

"Fine!" Specter finally stated in non-gibberish, "what else have we got that we're not using?"

"Well, we were able to salvage another Hellhound."

"I'll take it, outfit it with a light gauss and large lasers, make sure they're clan, I want Lams and I want armor and extra ammo, get what you can and get it done fast! There is an entire list of contracts waiting!" Specter screamed, while the Tech jotted all the specs down and ran out of the run at Mock 1.

"Specter, there is only one contract available right now, we have to defend the Deneb Coastal Facilities once again, there are rumors that it will be backed by about one and a half lances, or two; Burr's black Cobras." Castle stated hesitantly.

"When there is a list, there is urgency, when there is urgency, there is speed, when there is speed…"

"I get it." Castle rolled her eyes, unnoticed by Specter.

Specter looked at and noticed for the first time that his Lance mates, and Beowulf's lance were all circled holding cards in hand. He snuck over and peered over Scrapper's shoulder and noticed his hand; it was a run; a high run.

Hannibal looked at a pile of cookies lying on the table and slid two more onto it.

"I see your ten and raise you two." He stated.

Specter rolled his eyes, he had learned his lesson when it came to gambling, even in poker with cookies, he didn't like to lose, so stayed with competition on their kills.

"Get it together people, you all lose, the contract wants us there by ten tomorrow, so get your gear ready so you wont have to pack in the morning. If you have, then help the techs with your mech, get out!" Specter ordered, if he couldn't win, no one could.

They all began to complain, but dutifully slammed their hands on the table, Buzz happily grabbed the pile of cookies and put them in a box and shuffled the cards before putting them in his pocket.

They shuffled out of the room and went their separate ways to pack and organize their gear. Castle was the first one out.

Specter sighed as he exited the room and walked over to the mechbay. The doors opened and he strode out on the catwalks to see his Hellhound being refitted and armor plates being placed. A crane lowered a large, long barreled weapon into the stripped right arm of the mech and was fixed into it by several techs scrambling around it like ants.

John watched as ammunition for the light gauss was loaded into the chassis, and as the ER large lasers were installed. He breathed a sigh and left the mechbay to organize his gear before going to bed, he hoped the next day would be more interesting.

* * *

John woke with a start as his alarm went off with an annoying grating "beep, beep, beep". Specter shook the blankets off and got into a sitting position on the side of his bunk. While rubbing his temples he sighed and went over his dresser and pulled out a shirt.

The cooling vest felt cool as he strapped it to his chest, and the monotonous clinking of his footsteps were quite as he stalked towards the mess hall.

Specter found everyone else in there eating breakfast in their cooling vests, the cook behind the buffet was smiling as he served a platter of scrambled eggs to the Commander. The hot eggs sat well in his stomach and were soon accompanied by a glass of cold old-fashioned 2 percent milk. Specter leaned back on his stool and hailed his men.

"Alright team, our ship is about to take off; so get ready! Get to your mechs and run your checks."

"Sir! That should be our knew saying!" Steven/Buzz stated.

"Well then hop to it!" Specter replied while he strode proudly out of the room.

They all shuffled out of the room and followed after him. The comm. In Specter's ear crackled as Castle's voice announced their imminent landing.

* * *

The doors of the mech bay parted as Specter and his lance mates walked through and towards their mechs.

The elevator's quite hum was unnoticed by Specter as he rode it to the top of his mech before stepping into the cockpit and sliding the neuro-helmet over his head.

Specter relaxed in his seat as the polished leather covered frame vibrated from the start of the cold-fusion reactor. His mech's computerized voice listed his working systems.

"Engines nominal, weapons systems nominal, all systems nominal." The voice quieted, but started again after there was a loud crash.

"Hull breach, heat sinks compromised."

Specter cursed loudly and heard the snickers of his lance-mates, before he got mad at them too.

Specter felt the dropship shudder as it landed on the hard pavement. A shower of snow spread across the Talon dropship.

"Castle, is there an MFB or repair bay nearby? My mech has had some problems before I even hit the dirt." Specter said over the comm.

"I'll see if I can negotiate anything, have the rest of your lance go ahead and begin the patrol." Castle replied with an amused tone.

"Yes, they do have a mech repair-bay and we are entitled to use it. Just go to Nav point gamma and so to some, _real_ repairs." Castle stated this sentence on a line that the techs could hear, just to make them feel bad.

Specter smirked while he piloted his mech into the repair-bay and powered down. Minutes later, Specter's mech charged over a hill and caught up with his lance-mates.

"Feeling better captain?" Gator asked in a welcoming sarcastic voice.

"All the aches in my bones have been dealt with, I feel like I just had a manicure." Specter also joked.

John Anderson marched his Clan medium mech to the front of his lance and trudged down the slope into the sea.

"Ships inbound Specter, We're bringing the Calliopes online." A shaky voice uttered over the comm.

"Copy that. We are in position," Specter stated while he gave the order to his comrades, he opened up his light gauss and disintegrated a small patrol ship, "we have engaged the enemy; don't worry."

"Ok, well be ready, I've got readings of enemies coming in; light hovercraft. Take your lance to Nav Beta." This time that man at the station was not so nervous; Specter's quick action and reputation had calmed him down.

Specter's lance and a half poured ammunition into the last patrol boats while they trudged through the waist deep water to the newly placed Nav Beta.

John, AKA Specter, climbed up the hill to the plateau and perched on the hill like a bird ready to strike. Specter leveled the guns of his Hellhound and looked in the direction of three condors sliding up the hill opposite of him to the fuel storage tanks.

There was a ping while three more red dots entered his radar.

"Specter lance, split up, take out the Condors and Harassers. I have a feeling that if we don't do this fast, more will come and we'll be too taxed to deal with it." He ordered with speed and trained calmness.

"Yes sir!"

"Roger!"

"Roger."

"On it!"

"Yeah, yeah."

Specter's lance of six total went out and threw their lasers and missiles in glowing streaks at the medium vehicles. One Condor was slugged in the side by a green beam; it survived only to be the target of a swarm of SRM's.

Specter pounced down the hill and loosed an emerald beam of heated energy into the hull of an annoying HHHHarasser. It shattered and became a brilliant ball of fire that melted the ice and snow around it, turning it into a ball of steam.

"Open fire, don't let any of them live for a second." Specter ordered, though at the time; there was only one Harasser left.

It must have been a bad pilot, because he drove his hovercraft right under the foot of Beowulf's Bushwhacker.

Beowulf barely grunted, and even that was barely heard over the comm.

"Enemy aircraft are incoming, watch the skies." Castle reported over the comm.

"Is Harpy there? Any friendly air-support?" Specter questioned.

"No, you're on your own for this one."

Specter was about to reply but an unknown voice cut in.

"Is this the infamous Specter?" A female commanding voice demanded.

"This is Specter," He replied as he noticed red dots pinging on his radar, "any reason you needed an introduction?"

"Dragonfly here," She replied before adding: "just making sure I was swatting the right fly."

Specter sighed and answered her swiftly and with an annoyed tone: "You're welcome to try. Specter out."

"Wipe out these punks and head home." Specter ordered.

"More salvage never bothered me before." Added one of his lance-mates.

"The carrier Hawkniff has launched several wings of aircraft, keep a steady eye out." Castle piped in.

Specter was about to talk once more, but he took a heavy blow from a Bushwhacker's auto-cannon to his shoulder, it shook him a bit; but he recovered quickly.

"Fire!" He crowed.

"Yes sir!" Came the happy replies, now accompanied by twice the noise of munitions firing.

Specter plowed through the water while he fired his gauss rifle and his two lasers into the leg of the Bushwhacker that had tagged him.

The leg was shredded and the armor tracker on his panel showed it as black. He waited for his weapons to reload and recharge; seconds later, he pulled the trigger.

The gauss fired again and tore the leg off the chassis, the pod fired up, and the mech fell down to sleep with the sharks.

His lance mates slammed their cargo into a nearby Uziel and tore its torso apart; utterly decimating it while Bullseye shot down the choppers and newly arriving Nightwinds.

Specter turned on the leading heavy, an Argus.

"Hello Dragonfly…" Taunted Specter while he threw his lasers in her face, followed quickly by his gauss rifle.

"Hey!" She called indignantly.

Specter kicked her mech's leg and knocked off her balance while waiting for his lasers to finish getting ready.

They showed green, just like the lasers he fired nanoseconds later. They Argus fell backwards and sunk into the water with a splash.

"You alright down there?" Specter asked sarcastically.

"You'll pay for this! And for Lieutenant Dunman's lance!" She argued.

"You can still leave."

"No."

"So be it. You are defeated." Specter replied as he crushed her mech as it stood up with an alpha strike, the mech fell to the ground and was critically crippled, and out of the fight.

Nightwinds and Nightshades were falling from the sky, and now the mechs were falling exponential speed.

"Bullseye!"

"Target is eating dust sir!"

The reports kept on coming, soon only the fighters were flying over. Specter lined up his crosshairs and launched his magnetic rifle's projectile into the hull of one. His lasers soon followed and cored the two following behind.

His friends and lance-mates gathered around and stood at attention. Specter used his mech's foot to lift the Argus halfway through the damaged but still slightly functional, with the pilot locked in the watery tomb.

"Still there Dragonfly?" specter asked.

"You'll pay for this some day, you'll pay!"

"I think we'll have some peace after we trade you to the Cobras." He replied nonchalantly.

Specter thought he heard her mumble, but wasn't sure if it was his imagination.

"How humiliating…" She whispered.

Castle cut in on his line and informed them of their next objective.

"Specter, good work, it is best if you regroup and come back A.S.A.P."

"Okay… Castle, get tac-ops and salvage ready… And bring our guest too." Specter stated in his chipper voice.

* * *

_Author's note…._

_Well, I'm sorry that I haven't updated recently, I'm getting near the end of my school's schedule so it's hard to find time to write. I hope you enjoyed the twist._

_-Tremble Wolf_


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 7:

Above Halleran V once more aboard the "Skippy".

3067 AD 09:43 GST.

Disclaimer: I don't own.

In the brig, a simmering mercenary commander paced her small room. She would walk four feet one way and then turn around and walk back. Specter stood outside almost as if to taunt her with his freedom. For him this was fun to watch so he stood there just to make her feel worse.

Infuriated Dragonfly pointed at Specter and addressed him. "Why do you have to humiliate me further? What have I done to go through this?"

"I just want the Cobras to know how outclassed they are, so that when we return you, they won't want revenge." Specter replied as he let a smirk align itself on his face.

Dragonfly, that's what they had to call her, since she hadn't given her name. Anyway, she sulked in a corner and just waited till she could be freed. Specter pushed himself away from the wall and left the brig to do something more exciting, like finding a job, or negotiating with the Cobras for example.

The gloomy cramped metal hall he walked in was not even noticed by Specter as he had forgotten what they looked like long ago and replaced each hall with a number a steps till there was a door, or just "walk and think". So Specter finally decided to see what his halls were truly like, they were not fancy or totally spacey they were dull gray metal walls with a dull floor and ceiling which led to an uninteresting door. "Great!" He thought, "This truly is a wonderful ship!" Not… What he actually thought was more along the lines of; "Are they really _that_ boring?"

But he continued walking through the small halls ways till he came to lounge where his lances were relaxing in expensive and comfortable lounge chairs and sofas. They all had a drink in one hand and a card in the other, which they were trying to hide from each other. Buzz stood in the middle and announced the group.

"Everyone asleep." He ordered as they all closed their eyes and pretended to sleep. He then continued: "Mafia awake." Specter noticed as Scrapper and Hannibal 'woke up' and looked at each other and pointed at Castle. Then they 'went to sleep' and Buzz ordered the 'doctor' to wake up, and Castle sheepishly pointed at herself before closing her eyes. "Everyone up!" Buzz announced.

"Last night the Mafia decided to kill, so they followed a young woman into a coffee shop and poisoned her mocha… But luckily her doctor had her taking a treatment that helped her be immune to its effects." Buzz looked proudly around the room before adding, "Alright, who has any accusations?"

(So you know, here is the list of his lance mates: Beowulf, Hannibal, Scrapper, Gator, Buzz, Bullseye, and Shredder, plus himself.)

Gator pointed at shredder and waited for other people to second his accusation… Hannibal did.

"Jacob (Shredder) defend yourself." Buzz pointed at him nonchalantly.

"I'm just your average citizen," He began, but they didn't like it. "Do I look like I could kill?" He pleaded.

Scrapper jumped in, "But you have killed people, you're out!" With that they all sentenced him to die and leave the game to find out he was just a commoner. Specter laughed from the sidelines and chose a seat where he threw himself into it and picked up his computer from the table.

Once more he went to his most popular place, his connection with the MRBC to see if any contracts were lined up. There was one more, a convoy escort, Specter was surprised that Corvati still wanted to pay him, but he accepted it anyway.

And after he pressed the button to accept, he looked up at his men to announce their new mission.

"Ok team." He started, "We're doing a mission with Corvatti and it's going to be soon, be ready because tomorrow at noon we're heading out for an escort."

And with that, he stood and left. Specter regretted having to leave the chair, but he wanted to be ready now so didn't have to rush later. So, he marched his way back out the door and into the dull hallway which he had just recently investigated and turned his way to the mechlab. This was the place where his Bushwhacker was now fully repaired, and fully loaded out with a Clan Ultra AC 20, and an ER large laser. He was happy to see that his equipment could still be working after all it has been through.

The doors of the mechlab parted as he neared them and led him out onto a catwalk, which looked down on all the mechs and tech's doing their thing.

He watched with satisfaction as they finished the paint on his mech, a nice mix of blues which he thought were appealing to the eyes. They finished putting on the insignias and then moved on to fix the other mechs. So Specter decided to look at what he had going on for the mission, one lance, meaning he was going to bring his best… Beowulf, Hannibal, and Bullseye.

Then he decided to look at the mechs he had and see which ones he was going to use. There was his Bushwhacker, Beowulf's Bushwhacker, one Hellhound, one Hellspawn, an Uzziel, a Shadowcat, and a Raven, and one Osiris. They had just recently sold other bits of their equipment and decided to buy some defenses for their stolen base.

So, Specter decided to use the two Bushwhackers, the Shadowcat, and the Uzziel, and with that settled, he decided to go to his on-station dorm and leave the Talon.

He walked over the door and wrapped a thick and heavy coat about himself and opened the door, a powerful gust of wind pushed him back a few feet, but he caught himself and pulled himself out the door. Small amounts of snow were falling and he ran as fast as he could to reach the nearest building. And he was immediately grateful for the warmth and took off his coat and strode straight towards a flight of stairs and rushed his way up to the third floor.

He then found his room and practically fell through the door and into his luxurious stateroom. This room probably belonged to someone important before he took it, and now he really enjoyed having it; the walls were not the same dull metal as in the ship, but were boarded with polished wood and had a refreshing scent of cedar.

John collapsed on the bed and slept till the morning.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(In the drop ship.)

Specter sat ready in his mech and listened to the common drones of his mech's computer as it stated all was nominal, and swiveled his torso to the sides to look at his lance. Beowulf's mech looked perched and ready to deliver a beating, and Hannibal looked thoughtful, and Bullseye definitely looked excited and pumped. There was the now normal shudder as the drop ship met the ground, and the familiar groan of the mechbay doors opening and giving them room to leave. They all pushed forward and strutted slowly out to see a line of trucks waiting to be escorted to the nearby drop ship.

"Specter lead." An annoying and grating voice greeted his ears. "We're picking up scattered comm. Signals, you may want to check it out."

"Roger, extending lead to five–hundred meters." Specter replied, "Castle, anything on Sat-Comm.?" He asked.

"Negative, this weather pretty much has everyone blinded, your radar, and line of sight is pretty much all you've got." She answered.

"I've had enough of these wild goose chases…" Specter stated.

"And enough of our convoy associates?" Castle added.

"Well, let's just say they had better not default on payment or I'll enjoy running this route from the other point of view." Specter said sounding like a joke, but quite seriously.

Castle laughed and said, "Why commander! How mercenary of you!"

They hadn't gone far when the annoying convoy leader stated their arrival to Nav. Alpha. Specter climbed a little to the hills at the side and then noticed something on his radar.

"Cold start!" He announced, "Bandit mech at three-hundred meters!"

"Specter report status!"

"One enemy mech, don't worry about it, keep going." Specter replied.

"We better hold here till you take care of the problem." The convoy leader said.

Specter was fed up with this guy, "Negative! Keep your vehicle moving, I'm not taking any late fees over this would-be bandit!" He shot back, and the reply came to his dismay.

"We're holding."

He returned his attention to the Owens that thought it could stop them and lined his crosshairs over it, already his lance had been punishing it, and with one depressing of a button, it was disintegrated by his Ultra Ac 20.

"Keep moving!" Specter yelled at the trucks and artillery launchers that he had to escort.

"Hannibal, Bullseye go to Nav. Gamma, there's going t be enemies ahead and I want you to deal with it, Beowulf follow me to beta."

"Yes sir!" Hannibal returned as he went towards Gamma, Bullseye gave his affirmative, and Beowulf just sighed and followed Specter as he sped past the Artillery launchers.

And as they neared the bend in the road, Specter found blips on his radar.

"Light armor in the gully!" He announced.

The skittish convoy leader sounded panicky as he accused Specter. "Where'd they come from? Weren't you watching?"

Specter, annoyed, found an appropriate comeback to silence him. "Keep your poncho on convoy, we're on it!"

He and Beowulf walked their Bushwhackers down the slope to see a group of Vedettes heading their way, and as soon as the first one entered his range, he fired an emerald beam of energy that tore a sizable hole into one of the tanks. But it wasn't destroyed, he waited for a few more seconds and sent another laser into it and finished it off to be rewarded with fireworks.

Beowulf ran into range where his LBX 20 could deal its damage and crunched one of the other tanks lying about. Then he turned to the next and opened fire with a salvo of medium missiles, which found their mark and destroyed it.

Specter turned to the last remaining Vedette and fired his Ultra AC 20 for a glorious effect; utter decimation. And then he ran back out of the gully and onto the road where he saw Hannibal and Bullseye fighting off a lance of mediums.

"Here comes the cavalry!" Bullseye commented as he saw them coming, "We need the relief!"

"And here we are!" Beowulf replied as he charged a Chimera, Hannibal and Bullseye were busy with the Owens and Specter decided to deal with the Hellhound that was troubling them.

He rushed it and scored a direct hit to its chest with both of his weapons and shook its confidence. Eight seconds later, his laser and AC recharged/reloaded and he sent his laser out and melted some of its armor plates off and revealed a bit of its vulnerable insides. Specter was now circling it, the Hellhound trying to keep up did not even notice when its reactor shielding was breached and destabilized, his mech went down in flames. Beowulf had by now finished the chimera, and Hannibal and Bullseye had killed the Owens and watched as Specter trudged away from his enemy, there was no fourth mech, Hannibal and Bullseye had already dealt with it before they arrived at Gamma.

So they safely rounded another bend and saw the base ahead and Delta drawing near. It was then that Castle's voice greeted him once more.

"Sir, they do have an MFB and we were given full rights to use it, so if you need any repairs, go ahead." She helpfully suggested.

"Thank you Castle that is good to know." Specter replied. "Bullseye, you're looking orange, go first."

"Yes sir!" He happily complied and ran off at full speed.

The convoy lined up near the Hrothgar drop ship of the base and waited to be loaded… however, it was then that…

"I have three contacts moving in!" The base's manager stated. "Someone wants to keep this convoy from getting off-planet, and we're not going to let that happen, but our turrets won't hold them for long."

"Is that Hrothgar powered up?" Specter asked.

"Da." Came the reply from a somewhat Russian sounding captain. "I am captain Doshka, our gunnery officer is running crosschecks… Let them come."

"Alright." Specter sighed, "Guys this is going to be easier, but don 't let them get a shot off, we want them down fast, let's move!" He ordered diligently.

"Roger!" They all replied and thudded their way up the hill to see three medium mechs heading their way… Plus four Demolisher II's and a group of six Peregrine choppers.

"Sir?" Bullseye asked hesitantly.

"What? I see them, just kill them and stay cool." He knew what he meant and ran ahead and noticed when a huge volley of PPC's and Gauss rifle slugs were ejected from the drop ship and connected violently with a Hellhound that was inbound.

The Hellhound fell to the ground, dead. The Chimera next to it was luckier; it had its leg irreparably damaged and found itself limping until Beowulf finished it off.

Specter ran past the Owens that was foolish enough to get ambushed by his lance and headed straight for the Demolishers. First, he used his laser to take down a chopper, and then lined up his main gun on the nearest heavy tank.

He fired; the two huge rounds of metal demolished the demolisher and set it aflame and useless.

His friends now behind him all ganged up on another tank and set it ablaze, and then the third fell just as fast, but the fourth one didn't go down without knocking off Specter's left arm, which luckily housed nothing.

Then the helicopters, counted down on time, five, four, three, two, one. All were cleared up, and they marched back to base and were refitted. Specter looked up at the Hrothgar and gave his thanks. "Thank you Captain Doshka, much appreciated."

"And you Comrade." Came the reply, "Das-va-danya." He said and then fired the engines and flew off with the cargo.

Specter laughed to himself and then marched off to the extraction point. And it was when he got back that the god news actually came.

"Well, sir." Castle began, "They paid a full day ahead of schedule, it seems that someone might have heard your threat if they defaulted on payment!" She exclaimed smugly.

"Well that's good news." He stated, and then trudged back to his room to, "close his eyes for a bit".

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

_Well, I'm sorry for taking so long, but my life is that busy. So I'm glad you like the story and I hope you enjoy reading it, any comments are gladly received._

_OH! I started a new story! It is called Alternate Reality and is a Halo-Mechwarrior crossover, I think you should read it since it is set after this story, at the end of the Fed-comm civil war. PLEASE READ IT! _

_-Tremble wolf_


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 8

Halleran V: Specter base

3067 5:34 AM

Specter's face was lit by a dim blue light from the screen of his laptop, his hands were typing furiously on the keypad. A brown mug sat on the table next to his right hand and had a dark dry crust around the rim from old coffee. His foot tapped the ground uselessly as he checked his accounts; Specter's balance had lowered because the cost of fortifying the base was taking way more C-bills than Castle had anticipated.

He groggily rubbed his eyes and yawned as Beowulf, Charles tripped over the small piece of metal in the door.

"Don't do that." He said with a groan.

"Do what?" Specter replied.

"Yawn! It's contagious." Charles answered.

"Oh, oops."

"Yeah, "oops."" Beowulf snorted while he pulled up a chair. "What's the problem?"

"We are low on cash, and I'm having trouble finding a good paying job here." He sighed.

"Well, can we pull together enough small jobs?" He advised.

"My God! Charles you're brilliant! Why do we have two lances if we can't put them to work?" Specter yelled as he began typing even more furiously.

"Don't put me under too heavy of fire." Beowulf warned.

"Low pay equals low intensity." Specter quoted, seemingly from himself.

He clicked a button on his mouse and rose before dashing out of the room.

"They'll hate you for this!" Beowulf called after. And then, getting curious, glanced at the screen. His face fell. "You call that low pay?" The mission his lance was being sent on was worth seven million C-bills. Specter's lance was going after eight million.

"What is it you want to buy?" He though and he skipped to a different screen and saw a balance of forty-four million. There was a beep on the consol and he looked at it to see an "Incoming message" bar on it. He clicked…

It was automated, and from the contents, his mouth dropped open.

"Your purchase will dock at the set coordinates and your bills are being drawn from your account." There was a pause before the account balance read, five hundred thousand C-bills. "Overlord is docking now."

(Following Specter)

He burst open the door to the dormitories and light from the hall cascaded in. There were more than several groans and curses… and almost ten pillows thrown at his face, three hit. Specter filled his lungs and then shouted at them all as the turned on all the lights.

"Hey everyone, guess what!"

"Get out!"

"I don't care."

"Go fall in a hole!"

"Turn off the lights."

"What?"

Specter paused, at least one person actually wanted to know.

"I got you all a job!"

At this point Beowulf stumbled into the room right behind him and tripped over the pillows and stood up, out of breath.

Specter frowned. "What happened? Is the sky falling?"

"No, it's worse than that." He breathed for a couple seconds before adding. "I didn't know you ordered an OVERLORD!"

At this point Specter blushed, as everyone in the room threw off the blankets and screamed at once, "What?"

"I am splitting the gang up for now, Beowulf's lance has the Overlord and is going to help a defense. While my lance takes the Talon and raids a small base, well, medium sized base of the naval militia." Specter stated proudly.

(Silence)

Castle stepped into the room with a look of disgust while staring at the mess, before straightening the non-existent wrinkles in her jacket and addressing Specter.

"I just received a communiqué from an Overlord that you seem to have purchased, and there is a Captain Tamari that wants to see you."

"Beowulf, you go, you'll be riding in her ship for this next mission." He smiled, "I'm going to see if I can fire, I mean hire another lancemate."

"What do you mean commander?" Castle asked as she followed him and Beowulf out the door.

"I'm going down to the brig to see if Dragonfly wants to fight with some real warriors." He walked over to the elevator with a smirk dominating his face.

* * *

The doors opened as he stepped into the brig to see Dragonfly still pacing away. He smiled andwalked over to her cell.

"I have a deal you won't want to turn down." He began.

"What could you possibly offer that I might accept?" She demanded.

"A job, because It seems the Cobras aren't willing to take you back, something about "not wanting incompetents ruining their reputation."

She stopped right in front of him, glaring at him as if looks could kill.

"They won't take you back, you're unemployed, and they've dumped your account into filling their pockets. You really didn't think they were our friends, did you?" His voice could cut steel and bone and went right to the heart.

"Then I still won't fight for you!"

"Oh, but I could give you some real training, and a chance to teach your former comrades a thing or two. I could give you better pay and equipment, and good reputation." He smiled warmly and sat down in a nearby chair.

"Why do you want me?" She asked, once more pacing her small chair.

"Do you want a bigger room to pace, or a pilot seat? I have a job, and I need more guns, how about a Hellhound?" He proposed.

She stopped to think about it. "Maybe you aren't as bad as I thought, but are still cruel."

"I can also be a good ally and a supporting commander, and maybe I might let you lead a lance when I can hire more men." This was an offer she couldn't refuse.

Specter smiled and leaned closer.

"I know I'm making a deal with the devil."

"I'm not the devil, I'm your only chance, and I make a better deal for you than your last commander."

"You're right. I'll take that deal, get me out." She eagerly said as he ran to the door.

"Not so fast. I need a guarantee that you won't come looking for revenge as soon as you're suited up." He said sternly.

"You've got it!" She said with a wink.

"Did you just wink at me? I thought you hated me."

She blushed and then screamed. "Just get me out of here!"

"Okay, hold your horses." He replied as he pressed a button on the console and the door to his right opened. "Alright, follow me and I'll get you signed in to my company.

(Hours Later)

Specter sat in the cockpit of his Bushwhacker as the Talon rumbled beneath him. He turned his torso so he could get a view of the four lancemates he had with him; Shredder and Bullseye were on the left while Hannibal and Dragonfly were to his right.

Castle's voice came over the comm. In a split second "crackle."

"Get ready! They know we're coming and are ready for us, open fire once you're out!"

"Alright team! You heard the lady, hit them hard, move fast I want minimal damage on this run." He ordered calmly.

There was a shudder as the talon made contact with the ground, and a groan as the bay doors slid slowly open. Dragonfly loosed her light gauss rifle as soon as there was a crack in the door. There was a quiet explosion as a Condor exploded outside the craft.

"Fly got a Bullseye!" Bullseye stated.

"No time for pun let's go after them!" Specter ordered as he fired his laser out the door.

Hannibal's voice came over the line with more than a hint of urgency. "One heavy lance coming our way, led by an Atlas!"

"Everyone focus on him, fire at his chest as fast as possible." Specter yelled as his Bushwhacker tumbled out of the drop-ship. And brought his Ultra AC 20 to bear. His shot slammed deep into the center torso of the Atlas and shook it hard enough to make its shots go wild.

"Fire now!" He screamed as his laser burned into its side.

The two Hellhounds, one had been salvaged during his last convoy escort, streaked out of the bay and fired lasers and gauss rifles into the Atlas with ferocity. Then Bullseye stalked out in his Uzziel and punched the Argus that had begun to pepper Specter, with his PPC's. And a second later, Shredder was out of the bay in his small Hellspawn, loaded with C-STRK missiles and Small X-pulse lasers, the small ball of fun jetted into the air melted out the Atlas's reactor with an alpha strike.

After the shock of the explosion, Specter could see the enemy Argus hobbling over towards Shredder, but he took care of it with two shells of depleted uranium. Another mech down, this left two that needed fixing, or demolishing.

The entire lance, or if it could still be called that, having five members pounced on the Mad Cat the was tormenting Dragonfly with its LRMs and it wasn't long before all the tons of munitions sent it careening to the ground in flames.

This was it, one Novacat and a lance of tanks. Specter opened his comm. "I'll keep the cat busy, destroy those tanks and then help me out!"

No response, they knew what to do. Specter charged up the line right in front of the massive beast, and dodged out of the way just in time as the pilot wasted unknown amps of power and over heated.

Specter began circling it, he fired both his weapons at once, his AC 20 and his large clan laser. The laser got there first and melted a hole into the armor of the bulbous body. The Novacat didn't have time to move as a split second later, two giant bullets did even more damage by shattering the outer layers and splitting the reactive layer beneath.

It took four precious seconds to charge up his laser. And he fired just as the heat was under control of the Novacat's pilot once again. All the tanks were now in flames. Dragon fly and Hannibal fired their light gauss rifles into the mech and tore off huge sections of armor as well as making gaping holes in the mech.

Shredder was doing just that; he was running around the large mech firing missiles and lasers continuously. And it was only a matter of time as five mechs poured tons of ammunition into the Novacat. It was just one more chalk mark.

It was quiet, most of the tall evergreens had fallen, and some were on fire. A fog had set in and made it necessary for them to rely on their nav as they churned up dirt on their way to the militia base.

Dragonfly ran ahead to an outcropping of rocks. She climbed up and looked down into a valley that touched the water's edge. There were three destroyers docked and two lines of Calliopes sitting on towers. She also spied a field of helicopters and one fighter carrier.

"Guys? I think we need to move fast."

"What?" Specter inquired as he maneuvered his mech to stand next to hers. She pointed her mech's arm down below.

This caused a "Whoa." to escape Specter's lips.

"Move fast, Hannibal shoot down the control tower to the left, Dragon fly take the right. Shredder and Bullseye follow me, we need to shoot down those helicopters before they power up!" His voice was urgent and his need dire.

He pounded down the hill and fired his laser into one of the copters that was starting to lift off, and once he was close enough, he took out the flight control tower. Hannibal and Dragonfly defeated the Calliopes and charged the carrier. Their long range lasers and light gauss rifles caught it before it could sail out of range, besides, they caught a gas line and caused the entire thing to blow.

There were ten copters and still three destroyers… they were the real problem, using their long toms they were wreaking havoc. "Take out those destroyers! Keep moving, don't let them hit you!" Specter screamed.

He shot down another copter with his laser and turned his AC 20 at the nearest destroyer, the two shells finished it off, since Hannibal had been trying to sink it.

Shredder joined the fight with the ships while Specter was switching off. And soon it was down to only one destroyer, battered and defenseless, its turrets had been skillfully blown off.

"Destroyer. This is specter, do you surrender?"

"We surrender." Came a weak reply.

"Good. Tell Castle to get tac-ops and salvage in here. I want to sell that ship."

"Why don't we keep it and use it?" Shredder suggested.

"I don't have enough hands as it is!"

* * *

Sorry it took me so long to update. This is from school so I'm sorry. My computer was broken and now I try to get by even for school.

-Tremble Wolf


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 9:

Halleran V: Polar Ice Cap

3067 14:43 GST.

Disclaimer: I do not own mechwarrior, it's older than me.

Beowulf sat in the command console of his Bushwhacker, his breath steamed even inside his cockpit. He was half buried in the snow and struggled to get the cold myomer moving so as to twist around to look at his lance. A raven was perched on a rock right behind him, as well as a ShadowCat and a Cougar. He was going to have an Osiris, but the new Captain was willing to trade.

He shuddered as he remembered his meeting with Captain Tamari earlier that day. She was quirky and annoying. She droned on in a british accent and soon ordered tea. His lance was making fun out of him by his accent and comparing it to hers.

Of course he was offended, he stated right then and there that she only wanted to have a british accent, that is after she left.

Beowulf sighed, they had just landed, and the joints of his mech were getting ice in them, he toggled the comm.

"Let's move to Nav alpha, I think there was a signal on my radar."

Scrapper pipped up from the Raven. "I'll run ahead and check it out, follow close behind me."

"Good idea." Beowulf replied.

Beowulf was annoyed, it was cold, and they were being paid by a bunch of scientists to guard some mines from the militia. He didn't know why the militia was always the enemy, but he didn't care, he'd rather have someone as easy as them to fight. Even if they weren't always that easy.

There was staic over the comm, and Scrapper's voice came in over the line. "Sir? they've set up some hard-point defenses, on wheels. They're moving toward the mine entrance. And it also looks like they took a MODL and did a ton a tinkering, the laser is sideways."

"That's a ton of firepower." Gator commented.

"A lot more than that." Buzz added.

"Captain Tamari is still in the base, correct?" Beowulf inquired.

"I'm still here Hardwig." Her voice grated over the comm, well, not really, she seemed like she could be nice. But no-one was going to give her that chance.

"Are you powered up?"

"Yes, I heard. But don't worry, I've seen this kind of thing before, though, these militia take it to a whole new level." She answered with worry etched in her voice.

The Raven piloted by Scrapper came back around the hill. "I've spotted a major weakness, it seems as though all these behemoths are connected to a giant tanker truck. I mean Hrothgar size thing. It is highly armored, but if we pound it, we'll take them all out. But..."

"We need to be far away. LRMs Lasers, let's get far enough away and start hitting right away." Beowulf finished, as his mech thundered up to a slope far enough away, and locked his missiles on to the beast. He was thankful that he thought he might need LRMs in this mission, and that he had two sets of the 20. They were the clan version of course, but that just mean't he could add more ammo.

"Lock on and fire on my command, Captain, open fire when it gets in range. Ok, fire!"

Beowulf watched in satisfaction as the missiles from his lance streaked across the space between them and impacted on the armor of the fuel tanker.The explosions from the hundred some missiles melted and fractured tones of armor, and splintered more under neath it. But if the was ever a thick skin family, this was the mother.

He waited as he felt the small rumblings as his mech reloaded the missiles. "Ready, fire!"

Once more, he locked onto the same spot he had fired for before, and pulled the trigger as his console beeped. The heat from the ignitions of the missiles melted the snow from the cockpit window and gave him a clean view. The second impact was even more devastating, and more sheets of metal rained down, but it would not explode.

Beowulf offered a grunt as the movable point defense guns fired at him, the AC impacting is bushwhacker in the left arm. "Keep firing on the tanker!" He commanded.

He was now in range to use his clan Ultra AC 5, and fired two depleted uranium shells. They impacted in the injured spot one after the other, fast enough so as to be exact. The first one tore up the armor and made a hole, the second it the fuel and lighted a small flame, one that spread too quickly to be controlled by the primitive fire suppression systems built in. His lance turned and ran as fast as their mechs could take them, but even then, the huge fireball and its secondary resultant ones threw them to the ground.

Beowulf listened to the groans and screeches of his mech as it worried its way to a stand. The armor had been ripped to shreds and his counter read red all over his mech, and those of his lance. "Get to the MFB, we need to repair right away before the next wave passes the ridge!"

"Yes sir..." Scapper replied as his Raven limped ahead to the east.

"Sir? I've got some bad news." Buzz called in from the Cougar.

"What is it?"

"Two Fafnirs are cresting the ridge!"

"Run! Pull best speed to the MFB's! And tell Tamari to load her guns." Beowulf ordered, panic nearly setting into his normally calm voice.

"Take your time." Tamari suggested. "Those Fafnirs don't have this range." Beowulf noticed a new blip on his radar and saw two allies moving in.

"I was working freelance, but Specter wanted to be my leader, that's why he paid so much. I already own a lance of mechs, but only two pilots."

Two Vultures perched on the top of the hill behind him and after a few seconds, sixty missiles from each of them flew towards the approaching mammoths. All hundred and twenty impacted in the center torso and shook the entire frame.

Beowulf turned even as he ran, and stayed in just enough time to launch a salvo of his own to hit the same mech.

"Just keep going." Tamari advised.

"I am, but I..."

"Just go!"

"On it." Beowulf replied. While Scrapper was coming back at full speed and fully repaired.

"You may want to get in line fast sir."

"Help them out, long range only." He ordered.

Scrapper got a ping from his computer and fired his LRM 15, the group of missiles sped across the expanse and dented the beast even more. Buzz and Gator were running back this time, both repaired.

"We need you sir! Hurry it up!" Gator called.

Beowulf trudged past the last mound and limped into the mobile field base and shut down. Techs were all over him, pulling off pieces and replacing them, giving fresh armor plating, and more ammo. He was then allowed to start up and walk slowly out. He alwayshated that part, because he always wanted to race out.

But he got out fast enough to turn and go back around the MFB to see the Fafnirs almost pon the fleeing mechs, a hill the only thing saving them. Annoyed, he locked on with all his LRMs, onto the injured Fafnir, and fired. Forty streaks ejected from his mechs shoulder pod and left arm, and slammed into the mech knocking it off balance and to the ground. He fired his AC and sent two rounds into the dying mech to finish it off, and just as before, one put in the hole, and the other met the vital components, such as the reactor. The mech exploded in a huge fireball, though not as huge as the one they had seen earlier.

The other Fafnir crested the hill and fired both its heavy gauss rifles into the Cougar that had turned and fired its lasers as it jetted towards the metal monster. Beowulf had an idea to keep it rocking.

"Everyone fire when I tell you to, fire one after the other. I'll start," Beowulf fired his missiles, and just as he pulled the trigger he called, "Buzz go!" then, "Gator! Tamari, and lancemate, Scrapper. Repeat!"

Just in the order he called, they all fired their missiles one after the other, two and a half hundred missiles impacted in the first wave, and the second was enough to bring it down. They all sat in their seats wondering what to do, not knowing if another wave was going to come.

"Let's get back to the ship and if we have to, switch out on patrols, but seriously, I think the militia is bankrupt. Get tack-ops and salvage, perhaps we could sell the Fafnirs if we can't get them working." Beowulf stated over the comm after a sigh. He looked out his cockpit window and around his cockpit... his coffee had spilled.

"Think we should tell Specter its time to leave Halleran?" Scrapper inquired.

"It's about time, I don't think we can take any more money from here, but that doesn't mean that planets like Eaton aren't in need for some mercs." Beowulf replied.

"Who wouldn't want us?" Buzz asked.

"That's right." Gator laughed.

"Guys, this mission is over, can I head back?" Tamari asked with an annoyed tone.

"Why are you asking us? Just leave, no wait, let's all leave." Buzz snickered

* * *

Specter opened the door to what he called his office, but it was really a small, cramped room that held a polished maple desk and a comfy leather chair, with the exception of books, papers, his computer, and an ashtray he didn't even use. In fact that ash tray has a funny story, because its Beowulf's, and he doesn't even use it.

Also on the desk, in the ash tray, was his coffee cup which was plain, and black. No sugar, no cream, just black coffee. He didn't normally drink black coffee, but he was trying to decide what to do. his lance mates were right, the golden river in Halleran was dried up, and they had to move on.

He lifted up his laptop's screen and typed in his password, which he wouldn't let anyone know, not even a clue or hint. Castle connected with his computer from else where and started talking right away, but he never really paid her much attention like this.

"Castle?" He sighed, "Can you show the star system overview? I want to know what contracts are available and where."

"Well sir, are you drinking black again?"

"Would you give that up!"

"Sorry sir, it's just so gross. Anyway, there are some contracts on Eaton, you can defend the governor, or help out the revolution." She stated methodically.

"Not now, anything else?"

"Well sir, you can go to Solaris VII, but I don't recommend the games."

"Why not?"

"Sir."

"I'd rather do that now, let's book a flight."

"If you say so sir."

"I do."

* * *

Tremble Wolf- Thanks for reading, I'd like to thank Rouge Baron and Kat Wylder for their continued help and reading of my story. Also I'd like to thank my sister Rika159 for reading as well. And thank you other people who have not reviewed, you remain anonymous because I don't know your names.

Encourage me to keep writing!

* * *


	11. Chapter 11

* * *

Specter the Mercenary: 

Chapter 10:

3067: November 15th 12:00 GST

* * *

Specter sat in the cockpit of his armed Raven, olive drab, C-streak 6, and two medium x-pulse lasers housed in his chassis. 

He patiently listened to Duncan Fisher drone on about the players for about fifteen minutes before the air-horn blew and he pushed the throttle.

"The light circuit is all about speed, sometimes fans look down on the light circuit because they can't understand who killed who or what the heck is going on." Duncan's voice came over the field in an annoying tone.

Specter's mind screamed "shut up!" But he was too busy tracking the Osiris that ran by his side, firing red beams of medium lasers and peppering his beak-like nose.

Angered he locked and fired his streak SRM's and watched joyously as they tracked the little bug and squashed six holes in its form. He laughed at his opponent over the comm and toggled his lasers, and watched with satisfaction as they scraped away layers of armor from the center of the Osiris's nose.

He danced circles around the weak and unimpressive mech that his opponent foolishly fought with. His lasers and missiles quickly recycling, he fired with pinpoint precision and a growing heat inside his cockpit until the puny mech collapsed and his opponent ejected.

He laughed, quietly, as he moved towards the nearest red dot on his radar. A wolfhound entered his view, red paint and Duncan announcing her prowess. Sun Tso Liao turned to face him, her right arm bearing a clan PPC, and pretty mangled from earlier fights.

He raced forward, the speed of his mech and random stops and turns causing her to miss the first two times she fired.

Specter fired his weapons, an alpha strike, a direct hit to Liao's PPC bearing arm. The mangled arm ripped off the thin chassis, and its remaining myomer splayed and whipped like a snapped tendon.

Liao's Wolfhound only had two small pulse lasers to peck at him, at that Specter laughed at the pilot's foolish thinking. Laughing at the idea of only one powerful weapon in a place where it could easily be knocked off and cripple the giant.

While Duncan praised Liao's skill, Specter laughed at her incompetence as a pilot. He thudded forward, and smashed a hole in her torso with a volley his SRMs, soon following it up with several blasts of his advanced lasers. He only partially minded the equatorial heat inside his cramped and cheaply fitted cockpit.He sweat terribly under his cooling vest and began to stink up the cockpit.

But he was too invested in wiping out the Wolfhound to notice the heat, or the Owens that was sneaking around the corner behind him.

He was soon surprised to find a volley of SRMs streak past his view, and well as feel the jolt of medium lasers burn holes into his legs and back. He quickly turned his torso around for a quick shot with his lasers after he fired another volley of missiles at Liao.

His hit scored points on both opponents, the monkey in the middle killed the Wolfhound with the missile volley, and caused the Owens to lose its balance.

Even though he knew that it wasn't considered nice, he reminded himself that all the other pilots would do the same. Specter fired on the mech even as it hit the ground, his computer registering even more damage being done to the weaker and clumsier mech.

He began to notice cracks, or large gaps appearing on the mech, and fired once more, through the gaps to ensure victory. The mech had been trying to stand, but it exploded with an ejected pilot with a huge fire ball.

Specter cheered, and ran his mech in a large circle listening to his unheard of name being stated from the booth.

* * *

When he had left the arena he parked his mech in his borrowed, rather rented, space and let the techs run over it. Meanwhile Beowulf and Scrapper sat on the crates by their ship. 

"You were showing off." Scrapper pointed out.

"You also left several large holes that a better pilot, like me, would have exploited." Beowulf cautioned.

Scrapper turned, hearing someone approaching, and turned back with a groan. "It's the Brit. again."

"She's not British!" Beowulf punched Scrapper in the arm, obviously insulted.

"You know, I would think that you would be a little more enthusiastic about having a comrade here." Specter teased.

"Well, I'm not." He replied carefully as Tamari approached.

"Well good that! Chaps!" She announced cheerfully placing her hands on her hips and facing them.

"Is that how you congratulate someone?" Scrapper teased.

She scowled, and ignored him. "Could I fight in the next match?"

"Sure." Specter waved his arms about in a confused manner. "You could all fight but I'm not paying for you."

They just grunted and returned to the nothing they were doing. While Specter got up and left for the hangar and to see when the next matches were happening. Lucky for him he had about another week, a week he could spend wasting time while war happened around him. A week he could waste money, and probably lose playing poker or what-not.

He sighed, he was smart enough not to lose money by gambling. So he just left the hangar and went back to their hotel.

It took a short ride in a cab to get there, as there wasn't much traffic at that time of day, and he arrived at the Solaris brand hotel. It was large, like most hotels, with spacious rooms and a pool for the summer months. Except that this wasn't summer so it was closed. He went to his room to change clothes and then see what he could do next.

He didn't have any plans, but even not having plans can be ruined. After he changed and went back to the lobby, because that is where the cafeteria is, he purchased a hot cup of coffee and sat down by the window to read the newspaper.

While reading one of the articles, because there was a lot going on, he noticed that on almost every world there was conflict. At least every world he actually knew the names of. As he read the large number of articles, as his coffee got colder, and as the snow began to fall outside, he noticed that he had an almost limitless supply of jobs. He left his coffee and went back up to his room to pack.

Once had had all three of his bags he ordered a taxi and went back to his ship, leaving a few phone messages to his hopeful team. His replies, or off chance times when they answered he got unsuitable results when he announced his plans.

And by the time he had the ship warmed up his whole team arrived to meet him at the cockpit and frown.

* * *

"You want to leave now?" Shredder demanded. 

"We just got here!" Buzz complained. "I deserve this!"

Specter waved his hands at them for attention, in a placating manner, and answered. "I was reading the newspaper today, and I actually found mercenary want ads in it. But they are probably cheap missions we don't want to waste time on."

He paused, waiting for his team to stop shuffling their feet.

"And what I noticed was that all over the inner sphere there is enough conflict for us to live fat and happy for two lifetimes. Even if we can't fight that long. You see, we are going to Hesperus II because there will always be something for us to do."

"I don't want to go there!" He heard several complain.

"I don't care, on Hesperus II there are several missions available to us. And I think an easy convoy escort shouldn't be beyond your capabilities, is it?" Specter taunted.

Hannibal crossed his arms, "Fine, I'll do it."

Tamari waved her arms. "This'll be Jolly good!"

At which, of course, everyone shuddered and covered their faces.

* * *

Once they had docked with a Jumpship that was en route to Hesperous II they sat around and waited for their Alernate Dimensional jump. As the ship rumbled and energy flowed to the engines, Specter leaned against the railing of the mech bay's catwalk. 

Once the jump occured Specter was thrown into the air, and they arrived at Hesperus II. And Specter arrived to a meeting with the floor one story down. He picked himself off the floor and rubbed his chest and arms with a groan.

One of the techs hurried to his side and slapped him hard on the shoulder. "You'll be alright mate!" He said cocking his head to the side.

Specte ignored him, wishing to dish out a Scrooge scowl at the annoying tech, but he had already left his side and was tightening the bolts on his mech's foot actuator. He groaned once more and left the hangar for the lounge, hoping to get a bite to eat before climbing into his mech and going on another mission.

When he finally reached the cafeteria he picked up a hot dog and insensitively doused it in ketsup and mustard. Once he was satisfied with that he moved on to the other food, grabbing a muffin, a bag of chips, and a glass of OJ. With that he sat down at the table, alone without even the cooks nearby, and ate his slightly cold food.

His muffin had nuts and fruit, so that comforted him some. His hot dog was the only warm thing, so appreciated it, and his chips were just how they were supposed to be... cheap. But he ate all his food, five minutes had passed by the time his tray and glass were emptied. His hungar abated he left the cafeteria to meet his selected team for the mission and conduct business with the Davion loyalists.

* * *

There they were, on the ground, surrounded by mist, with a trail of snapping turtles. Excuse me. Annoying tank drivers and convoy leaders. 

Specter rolled his head to the side, stretching his neck and cracking an annoying disk. He kept his hand relaxed on the joystick, and kept his head cool as the panicked voice of the convoy leader came on.

"We've got two bogies coming in, one in front and one behind!" The panicked leader's vehicle was swerving, and narrowly missed the laser bolt fired by the Shadowcat that jetted over the ledge.

Specter's Hellhound Snapped into action, with one light gauss and one rack of Streak SRMs he fired his first volley. "Scrapper, Hannibal take out that one behind us."

"Will do." Hannibal cheerfully complied, turning his heavily and decievingly stocked Bushwhacker to bear it Ultra AC 20 on the small Chimera behind him.

"Yes sir!" Scrapper cheered, banking his Shadowcat in a steep turn and firing its LBX 20 and ER laser at the Chimera.

Specter turned, noticing that Beowulf already knew what he was going to be ordered to do. He was firing salvo after salvo of Streak SRMs from his Vulture and moving slowly forward in an attempt to make it run. Specter had known that it would come in handy, letting Beowulf pick his own weapons. His vulture was armed with three racks of C-strk 6 missiles and two racks of LRM 15s. The only downside was the fact he had less heatsinks, and could overheat pretty easy.

Specter's light gauss punch the Shadowcat under the nose, in an undercut that cored through the feeble wreckage of armor and punched through the safeties of the reactor, and in another instant the mech exploded in a beuatiful fireball.

Hannibal and Scrapper stepped back into their positions, the Chimera having fallen long before the Shadowcat. "Move forward." Specter ordered to the tanks.

"Uh... Yes sir."

They rounded the bend without trouble and continued marching. Though it was only a couple minutes after that Specter heard Castle's voice come over the line.

"What's going on Castle?" He asked knowing a trap wouldn't be far.

"I'm detecting a light lance en route and one flight of Stilettos. Can you handle them?" She asked cynically.

"You bet." Specter relayed the information to his team. "Ok guys watch for the aircraft and keep your triggers ready."

They all had their little remarks, though Specter just kept his eyes ahead until his radar caught four red blips on a direct interception course, and five other red blips coming at a faster speed aiming for him. He sighed. "Here they come!"

He turned his nose in the planes' direction and aimed skyward, as soon as one nose came into view he fired his gauss rifle, the shock of the shot throwing him slightly off balance, but still succesfully giving the plane and body piercing.

Two more planes fell as Beowulf locked on with his LRMs and fired his SRMs at another.

The flight passed them, firing their annoyingly accurate and destructive AC rounds at their chests. Scrapper melted one down as they came back into view, leaving only two planes that were crushed the next instant. One was due to Specter's gauss, the other to Hannibal's only laser.

By this time the lance of slow moving "light" mechs were behind the next hill.

"Castle?" Specter's voice shaky.

"Sorry sir." She answered. "Those aren't light."

"I know!" He practically screamed as a Zues and three Arguses rounded the bend. "Fire on the Zues!"

Specter twisted his torso, hoping to run around his opponants and shoot them down one by one. But it seemed the enemy commander knew what he was doing and ran in a circle opposite him, not wanting to stand still.

Beowulf fired, his missiles all locked onto the ballistic arm of one of the Arguses. The flights of missiels tore the weak armor and ripped the arm to shreds, effectively making it inoperable.

"Fire on the Zues!" Specter ordered again, this time aiming at Beowulf. "Worry about them later!"

"I think not Sir!" Beowulf replied, "They've got the most firepower."

"Kill the hardest, save the easiest for last!" Specter cried, still firing his missiles and light gauss at the hulking menace successfully denting its armor and causing shrapnel to fly in all directions.

Beowulf complied, only after having the time to knock off the ballistic arm of one other Argus. He fired all his missiles at the Zues, Hannibal fired all his, and Scrapper just focused on finishing one of the Arguses.

Specter grunted as the Zeus' laser burned him on the arm and shook him off balance. Annoyed he turned his Hellhound's torso to face the giant and fired his gauss rifle into its large left shoulder, knocking it back and confusing his enemy. Beowulf was on the opposite side of the beast and launched a good salvo of SRMs into its side, causing it to face him angrily.

"I'm running low on missiles Sir!" He announced to Specter.

"I'm on it!" Hannibal answered quickely while depressing the trigger of his joystick and firing a round of his Ultra AC 20 into the center torso. The first round cracked the plating and the second scored a hit on the reactor. "She's gonna blow!" He declared as he traced the ejection pod.

"Don't shoot, let him live." Specter aid as he noticed Hannibal's action. "Fire on th remaining Arguses."

As he was speaking, he noticed Scrapper give a shout. "I NEED some help over here!"

Both Arguses were pounding him with all they had. One even scored a hit with its heavy gauss, which threw Scrapper to the ground.

The rest of the Lance, ashamed of leaving him behind, turned around to fire on the "healthy" Argus. Hannibal's nearly empty UAC ripping the H. Gauss arm clean off the mech.

"Not so hot now are ya?" Scrapper demanded as the panicked mechs back-peddled in the direction they came from.

It was then that they noticed how far the convoy was, as the driver yelled to them over the comm. "We're at the bridge already! Where are you?"

"Saving your skins... still." Specter replied during his weapons' recycling time.

"Well hurry it up!"

Specter groaned inwardly, knowing he made the wrong choice to become a merc. and have to deal with people like them. He shook his head and continued his barrage against the Argus. His laser burning it thin standard armor and his light gauss slug punching through its stumach and out the other side.

"Whoa! You see that?" He asked, noticing that they had he laughed and faced the remaining Argus.

"You willing to surrender?" He demanded of the pilot, who was still firing his medium pulse lasers.

"No, I will not!" The Italian accented voice returned.

"Then pull out now." Specter happily advised while his lance fired alpha strikes in timed precision, impacting perfectly on its nose.

"I yield. I yield!" The pilot panic stricken screeched.

"Not anymore buddy." Specter sneered.

He fired his gauss rifle at its nose, just as the pilot began to eject. The slug crushed its compromised hull and destabilized the reactor. The mech collapsed to the ground and exploded an instant later.

"Come on guys, let's go escort these truck jockeys and then get outta ere." Specter scoffed.

"I deserve a break." Scrapper complained, with a cheerful tone.

"You sure do, after they way we fought today." Specter mused. "We need to get practicing working as a team, they way we acted today was unacceptable; we left Scrapper by himself against two heavies, partially my fault."

They lance sat quietly in their mechs, waiting for him to finish speaking, and tell them it was his poor planning.

"And uh... It was my fault right? Just mine?" He asked of his silent companions.

"Um, yeah, yeah it was." Beowulf replied with a stifled yawn.

"Yeah well we'll do better next time." Specter said, cracking knuckles and breathing a sigh.

* * *

I'm sorry this took so long to update, but I really was into my new story. And yes I know how lame it is of me to have so many unfinished stories, but my answer is that if I didn't write m ideas down fast and first I would forget all of them.

So I'm sorry about the wait. And I hope this was a decent chapter.

-Tremble Wolf


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